The Last Exorcism

Jeri Jacquin, Movie Maven

Opening in theatres this Friday from producer Eli Roth and director Daniel Stamm with Lionsgate and Studio Canal is the newest thriller with “The Last Exorcism”.

This film tells the story of Louisiana preacher Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), an evangelical who takes on a documentary film crew. Explaining his beliefs and his showmanship to the congregation, he also wants to document exorcisms.

He receives a letter from a father Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum) about his daughter Nell (Ashley Bell). He explains that farm animals have died and other strange occurrences are happening on his farm.

Marcus packs up his bags and his crew to visit the Sweetzer household. Once there he meets Caleb Sweetzer (Caleb Landry Jones) who basically tells the preacher and his crew to take a hike.

Louis basically explains what has been happening to his daughter and once Marcus meets Nell he believes he can help the girl. Through slight of hand and a showman’s performance, he convinces the family that the demons are gone – but are they?

Finding out the family history Marcus connects with the towns’ minister to find a connection between what is going on and the families misfortunes. He knows he must help Nell and by doing that begin to believe himself.

Now Marcus and his documentary crew are in the middle of it all as Nell continues her strange behaviors and a father fights for his daughters’ soul.

FINAL WORD: Bell as the unfortunate Nell is the high point of this film. She actually has a sweet look about her that can turn crazy in an instant! That being said she does need to work a little more on her ability not to be so transparent, the exaggerated ‘good girl’ imagine was hard to believe at times.

Herthum as dad Louis was straightforward and also quite good. It was easy to believe him as a concerned southern father with values that he needs to maintain his family. Jones as brother Caleb provided a few laughs, which helped a lot.

Fabian as preacher Marcus was just a joke. I didn’t believe him from the get go as a preacher and found him to be the biggest sham of them all. He’s not even a likeable character with his low opinion of people’s beliefs.

Eli Roth is the films producer and with credits to his name like “Cabin Fever” and “Hostel” it is surprising that he would put his name on this film. Rated number one on the list of Bravo televisions “Even 100 Scarier Moments”, one would expect a huge thriller and this is a huge disappointment.

TUBS OF POPCORN: I give “The Last Exorcism” two tubs of popcorn out of five. Mainly because the young lady in the film was spooky enough to carry parts of the film but not enough to carry the entire film. I was in no way frightened, spooked or shaken by this film – how could I be when I was to busy laughing at it.

This is a combination of “Blair Witch Project” which that infernal shaking of the camera and “Paranormal Activity” with two scenes of scary and both in the commercials. There isn’t anything new here to be thrilled about or worth paying for.

In the end – thank goodness this is the last exorcism!